Last weekend saw a pop-up community meeting held at at a BBQ shelter in Dalmeny where Clr McGinlay took questions for more than eighty members of the community seeking details around Council's proposal to sell 414,000 m2 of Council land at Tatiara Street, earmarked for urban expansion.
It was clear that the community had been caught off guard. While Council might state that the intention of selling the block for urban expansion had been put out to public consultation several times over in the last thirty years it was quite apparent that the community hadn't drilled down the seventeen levels of Council's website to find the reports and agenda items from 2006 and 2012. Had they done so they would have discovered that Council had long envisioned the Dalmeny land, as steep and unsuitable as it is, for urban expansion.
Realising that there were many in his own community who had little knowledge of what Council determined thirty years ago Council McGinlay called an impromptu meeting and fielded what questions he could, inviting the community to write their questions and send them to him in the lead up to today's Council meeting.
In all there were 24 received that Clr McGinlay then passed on to his other councillors.
Today's motion to defer any decision until the community can be informed and included in the the proposed sale managed to gain the support of the other councillors and even the staff.
A public hall at a venue a little larger and warmer than a windswept BBQ shelter is to be arranged by Council who will attend and answered questions around the sale and the processes required.
Clr McGinlay said "The main point in having a meeting is that residents, or anyone from around that area or basically any interested member from the community has a chance to understand the details and the process behind a major land sale that could lead to very substantial development".
Councillor McGinlay had originally requested a deferral for four weeks citing that public consultation for a farm gate required 28 days and that the sale of 414,000 m2 was a larger issue.
Council will be issuing a media release in coming days to announce the location of the meeting and a date and time.
